From Diaspora to Multiculture: In Search of a Youthful Pan-African Identity

Abstract

This paper draws on the early stages of my doctorate research into the formation of identity among a small group of young adult African Australians between the ages of 18 and 25 living in Canberra. These participants come from a cross section of the community, encompassing different genders, ethnicities, class, cultures and migratory patterns (diplomatic, humanitarian entrant, etc). I am exploring how these participants in my study perceive themselves and one another and whether they act together as a cohesive group across the' boundaries' created by class, gender and ethnicity amongst other attributes. In describing the complexities evident in black African Australian youths' processes of identification and belonging, compounded by the lingering legacies of British colonialism and the White Australia Policy, I look initially to studies of African diaspora. Here I hope to find interpretive devices or ways of understanding the African diaspora in Australia vis-a-vis pan-African discourse. This includes adopting a number of theoretical positions primarily taken from the work of Paul Gilroy to expound my own narratives and that of my participants. I also make a number of observations concerning the arrival of Africans in Australia with the First Fleet up to the current migration of humanitarian entrants to Australia. Here I further explore the dynamic that exists between Africans in Australia shaped by changing patterns of migration, settlement, and ethnicity. In all I aim to make more visible the African presence in Australia through the cultural studies field.

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